UNSW Community

Yuwaya Ngarra-li Webinar | A community-led evidence-based approach to youth justice

Communities and policymakers are grappling with how to effectively reduce children and young people’s contact with the criminal justice system and improve their wellbeing, health and education outcomes. This has been made more urgent with recent media attention on ‘youth crime’, especially in regional areas, and increasingly punitive responses in some jurisdictions that are at odds with available data and research. Communities are best placed to respond with their own solutions, such as the Two River Pathway to Change model led by the Dharriwaa Elders Group (DEG) in Walgett: a holistic, community-led approach to youth diversion and wellbeing developed as part of the DEG’s Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership with researchers at UNSW Sydney. Featured in an October 2025 Australian Human Rights Commission report, Evidence-based approaches to child justice: Supplementary paper to ‘Help way earlier!’: How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing, the Two River Pathway to Change model was one of only two Australian case studies grounded in research that provide evidence for alternative approaches to Australia's current punitive and harmful treatment of children and young people in contact with the justice system. In this webinar we heard from DEG staff and UNSW researchers about how the model has been developed and refined since 2018, including the establishment of the Walgett Youth Wellbeing Service in 2024. The team’s experience and reflections provided valuable insight into a community-led, evidence-based method for responding to the needs of children and young people, families, and communities. Speakers --Loretta Weatherall, Gamilaroi woman from Walgett and Wellbeing Lead for Dharriwaa Elders Group. --Zoe Sands, Gamilaraay woman from Walgett and Water and Country Co-Lead and a River Ranger Project Officer at Dharriwaa Elders Group. --Peta MacGillivray, Kalkutungu and South Sea Islander lawyer and Yuwaya Ngarra-li Senior Research Fellow based at UNSW. --Samantha Rich, Wiradjuri Graduate of Architecture and the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Housing Manager based at UNSW. ------------------------------------------------------ We're the official channel for the wonderful community members of UNSW Sydney, a brilliantly located university between the coast and the city. UNSW Sydney is one of Australia's leading research and teaching universities. We're a welcoming community, promoting lasting knowledge and creating an academic environment where outstanding students and scholars from around the world can be inspired to excel in their programs of study and research.